Garden Party

I'm not sure why I am posting about this now when I have a big trip to be packing for. We leave for Dallas in a few hours, but for some reason this seems to be a priority on my to do list. I think I need help.

Anyway, I've had several people ask me to give a detailed account of Mariah's b-day party so here it is. Remember, the secret is in planning way ahead. It makes it fun to look forward to, and it's not too overwhelming at the last minute. I hope you take my advice, because I am an expert you know.

It all started with really cute invitations that I can't find a picture of. If you are really really interested, let me know and I'll dig one up for you.

Our theme was a garden party. I had visions of lots of girlies (and a couple of boys) frolicking in my backyard and having lots of fun. We still had lots of fun, but due to rain we had to move the frolicking indoors.

(the sign behind Mariah said, "Welcome to Mariah's Garden. Flowers 10 cents" )

(the big flower behind Mariah was from Oriental Trading for like $4.00. It came with a whole bunch of huge flowers and tulips, butterflies, bees etc. They were all white, so Mariah and I painted them which turned out to be a fun project to do together. )

**I have a whole bunch left that have not been painted. First person to speak up gets them**

As our friends arrived, they grabbed a pot from the porch and came in to decorate them with stickers. I had also made some bug jars for them to decorate that were already on the table with their names on it. When the first kids got done and were ready to move on, I just started asking them what they love to do in the summertime and that kept their attentions until everyone was ready.

Before we could go to Mariah's garden, we had to go to Gardening School. We came out to the porch and had a quick lesson on what helps plants to grow and they learned the name of their flowers and how to take care of them. I was so impressed at how many of them remembered!

(This was also their party favor. No candy or filler toys. It was great and very inexpensive)

Now our little gardeners were ready to enter Mariah's special garden. We headed to the basement where I had some more of the big flowers that we painted. The kids were so excited. When they came down they said, "Mariah I wuv your garden", and suddenly there were girls twirling everywhere. I could have died it was so cute!

In the garden we had to help the butterflies find the flowers. So we played pin the butterfly on the flower. Conveniently, Logan was doing a unit on insects at school and had 2 different insect hats, so I grabbed those and let the kids choose which one to wear when it was their turn to pin the butterfly. As you can see Malaina is sporting the popular "bug band". Grace was one of only 2 kids who chose the spider band.

Next it was time to go on a bug hunt. I bought a bag of 500 foam bug beads from Oriental Trading (super cheap, I think $2). While I was in the garden with the kids, Hilery was spreading them all around upstairs. My plan was for them to make necklaces once they collected the bugs, but I bought too thick of string so we scratched that plan. So, I still have 5oo bugs at home.

First friend to speak up can have them!


Next it was time to pollenate our flower. We had a quick lesson on how bees and bugs pollenate and everyone dumped their bugs on the flower.
This by far was the highlight of the whole party. I bought this parachute from Oriental Trading for $8.95. It was a "decorate your own" kind. It already had the blue center, so I just painted orange pedals with $.50 acrylic paint. I'm keeping the parachute, but if anybody would like to borrow it, let me know.

I couldn't get over at how something like this could be so exciting. If you enlarge this pics, you'll see pigtails flying and looks of sheer happiness from all the kids. How cute are they????

Present time is always fun, and the parachute came in handy, as they all sat on it while they waited their turn to bring Mariah her gifts.




Of course a party isn't complete without cake, or in our case cupcakes. If you can't tell, these are gumdrop tulips on a toothpick. Since I'm not very talented with my hands I found it a little difficult to cut the gumdrops right. But I think it still worked. The grass is coconut with green food coloring. Mariah was able to help flatten the gumdrops with a rolling pin and she helped sprinkle the grass as well.


I was really pleased at how well it turned out given we had to move inside. We had 11 kids and I was so impressed at how well they did. Would not recommend that many boys in your house for a party. Tried that. Couldn't walk for 3 days after.



Time to start talking about our next party!